Touch ‘n Go opposed to parking lot surcharge – report

Touch ‘n Go is taking a serious view of consumers’ mounting concerns of an imposed surcharge for the use of of the cashless payment system at certain parking lots, according to a report by the New Straits Times.

The cashless payment provider supports the no-surcharge-fee business model and it has been negotiating with parking lot operators, building owners and other interested parties for the possible waiving of the surcharge, said Touch ‘n Go’s corporate sales, marketing and communications division head Aina Abdullah.

“This effort has resulted in the establishment of nearly 20 parking sites that provide cashless services without surcharge. While this is a small number, TNGSB will continue to encourage current and future partners to provide Touch ‘n Go services without imposing additional fees,” Aina said.

She said that the installation of a Touch ‘n Go system at any given location often involved several parties, including the parking operator, building owner and the system integrator, adding that the costs for installation, system integration, and maintenance are of concern to all parties involved.

“The surcharge is a cost recovery mechanism mutually agreed on by parking operators, building owners, system integration vendors and Touch ‘n Go to ensure that this convenient alternative is available to customers,” said Aina.

She said that Touch ‘n Go will continue to welcome feedback and suggestions towards a convenient and cost-effective cashless payment solution for the public.

There are currently over 20 parking sites which do not impose a surcharge on users, including street parking under the purview of Kuala Lumpur City Hall. The other locations include:

Also included are The Mines in Seri Kembangan, Kompleks Mutiara on Jalan Ipoh, Setia City Convention Centre in Shah Alam, Shaftsbury Square in Cyberjaya, Bidara Service Apartments on Jalan Sultan Ismail, International Medical University in Bukit Jalil, SS23 in Taman SEA, Petaling Jaya, Menara Prudential on Jalan Imbi, and VIVA Residency on Jalan Ipoh (to be launched in June 2017).

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To go Cashless is actually a GUD thing bcos it saves U valuable time looking for the Machines & some machines could be Out of Order/queues could be long.

The problem with T & G is they almost always never have the people at heart. They should have started it right from the beginning without imposing a surcharge.

U cannot clap with one hand. To sign an agreement, U need the cooperation of the other party/parties at hand. Don’t try to blame others for your greediness to sign the agreement bcos T & G is the Bigger party to this agreement.

I think Ms Aina Abdullah is trying to do Damage control here but it is futile to point the finger now. We are Not born yesterday.

Imagine the amount of pre paid cash T&G collects daily. Take our cash money first, roll this money until you spend it. Even if conservatively put in FD, imagine the interest collected. Monopoly business also. Somemore expect us consumers to pay extra for their service. No wonder every year untung big big.

Now TnG can simply claim and take their own sweet time to oppose since they are monopolizing the market
Know how to claim but no action taken = no effective results = no use to us consumers.
Wait till Visa Paywave/Master Contactless saw this cashless parking business opportunity.
And BOOM! The next day TnG confirm announce 2%surcharge fully waived the moment they are no longer monopolizing the market.

Yes i agree! Companies should have hundreds of staff and overhead costs…and provide services for FREE. Tng no need to make money lah… Ur staff all can just eat grass every month so idiotic Malaysians can be happy

20 out of how many parking? 2000 parking sites? 20 parking is peanut compared to the number of parking using TnG throughout Malaysia..Please don’t treat rakyat like we are dumb. If Touch n Go really honest with the no-surcharge, they would have impose this strict requirement before agreeing to the installation and implementation.

How much money does TnG get every month from the advanced credit from topping the card? Imagine RM50 top up for 10million user, that’s already whopping RM500million cash in their account, constantly!.

How much dividend they can get or investment they can do with this money?

Yet, we as consumer being charge extra for using the facilities…amazing Malaysia-rakyat didahulukan!

Personally speaking, like 15 out of 20 places mentioned are unpopular places or non busy places. I repeat, personally, because I would not go to those wisma wisma mentioned unless I work there. And it only benefits the minority for people who actually work in those wisma.
What about places like Pavilion, MidValley, Sunway Pyramid, MyTown and other big shopping malls?

KLIA & KLIA2 parking also with surcharge (10% or 20%). The carpark operator said is the T&G company imposed it and when call T&G company, they said it’s the carpark operator. Finger pointing each other. Don’t use T&G if there’s a surcharge to save your blood and sweat money. Non sense to say they T&G opposed the surcharge. If opposed, T&G should not sign the agreement and allowed to T&G to be put in there in the first place.

No point being opposed about it and do nothing..once people make noise only all goyang d..most of the locations that do not have surcharge are low volume destinations that had surcharge-free deals from the start..knowing that u are the dominant market leader..

such a situation outburst was a matter of time only… touch n go as a service and tech is not complex and Malaysians are more than willing to jump ship for a better deal (except maybe tolled roads la..u guys won that one already)

Understand that convenience equates money..but seeing as we pay up front ..the surcharge should be absorbed by touch n go..it’s just way too high at the momment..

And what about paying for train fares? Does the public know that we are probably the only country in the world where our train rides are more expensive if you pay cashless (by TnG)?
As long as there is protected monopolies, improvements will be lagging.

You’re definitely mistaken about that. The fare is cheaper when you pay via Touch ‘n Go. I take the train everyday from Putra Heights to Ara Damansara. With Touch ‘n Go I only have to pay RM 3.30 but if I take a ticket it’s gonna cost me RM 3.80.

A surcharge which has been largely ignored by TNG after so many years of rollout until the topic came up and then TNG says they are opposed to it? Really?

Aside to that, the frequency of errors which ends up in large sums of credit gets knocked off by users, it is so inconvenient that users now will have to go to TNG office which is not even open 24hrs and have only one office to be able to do so gets things very frustrating. Yes, some selected tool booth can attend to this via filling up a form and WAIT a long time for reimbursement is a joke. It was never offered to user to call and report and if verified, TNG can do the reimbursement immediately!

Tng wants more people to use tng for parking but wants parking lot operators to absorb their service charges. This will make parking more expensive if tng dont reduce their charges to said operators. Tng will make more money if so, parking operators as well (from cash payment). The common man will suffer from this. Even my company will not accept parking claims paid via tng even with statement because GST amount is not stated.

I don’t understand the parking operators. They still have to install the parking payment system. Doesn’t that incur cost already? It’s just a matter of choosing a system. So, why need to charge extra to recoup investment?

Plus, on the TnG side, why can’t they foot the additional bill, if any? They collect the money upfront, then only reimburse the operator after certain period of time. They are already making millions from deposits.

Cash is expensive. Banks charge money to receive cash deposits. And you need to pay for people to empty the machines and bring it to the bank. More so, the ticket printing machines and autopay machines cost a lot more to service and operate then TnG RFID scanners. No moving parts or consumables.

Long story short, TnG/cashless should be cheaper for all parties involved.

TNG asked parking operator not to charge extra, while TNG continue to charge operator extra in setting up and other payments. Just like government increase price of commodities and then ask business owners not to increase their selling price. Only Malaysians can take this lying down.

This article proves that Touch ‘n Go’s management is listening to consumer’s complains and trying to make a change for the better. I don’t get why people here are still whining instead of supporting? Let’s give Touch ‘n Go credit for this. They clearly deserve it.

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